sandy

 I tried to comment Sara, but for some reason whenever I click on your blog, I get signed-off buddyslim.  so, here’s my comment. 

I used to put my groceries in the car….then wheel the cart back with the kids in it…then take them back to the car the old fashioned way (they walked or I carried them) that’s the way I got them to it in the first place.  I don’t think there’s any excuse not to do that, unless the weather is so bad, but then I wouldn’t have taken them out anyway, so….?  Now that it’s just me, I not only return the cart, I get it out of the cart return before I even go into the store.  It is ‘free’ exercise and I try to park far from the store.  But that’s just me. ;)  A million degrees…..I lived in Az for 32 years, imagine how much weight I must have sweated off.  lol

ps….taking the ‘easy way out’ is what got us all here in the first place.

 I got to thinking when I read Nancy’s great blog this morning….  her blogs are often thought provoking.   I hope she doesn’t mind if I repeat part of my comment here.

It’s easy to ask for advice, not so easy to take it.  Just like a compliment…we all ask constantly for compliments (maybe not verbally, but in many other ways) and when we get them?  Not easy to just say ‘thank you’ after a lifetime of putting ourselves down.  Only when we start to grow in confidence can we accept the opinions of others. When we have no self-confidence other peoples opinions often make us react defensively.  I’ve written about this before…how my husband said it hurt his feelings when he tried to compliment me and I always gave a self-deprecating response.  (you look nice today…. no I don’t, these pants make my belly look huge, etc.)  He said it was like giving a gift and having it thrown back at you.  I had never thought of it that way, and if I had I would have thought “he must think I need to have someone think I look nice, because I don’t really….”    I don’t feel that way any more.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been careful just say ‘thank you’ .  That’s all, not thanks, but…… that was the old me responding.    After doing it long enough you begin to feel good when you get a compliment.  If you like this blog, great.  If you don’t that’s ok too.  I’m a big girl now and not everyone has to like me to make me feel confident.  I can do it all by myself.

I was thinking after reading a buddie’s blog and I wonder?  Is eating is another way of ‘cutting’. Do we do with food what some do with a knife. We are all hurting ourselves, just in different ways. Is it despair or a cry for attention? Or maybe a little of both? I don’t know….it just occurred to me that there is a similarity. Maybe if we keep this in mind the next time we’re tempted to ‘cut ourselves with food’ we’ll be able to control it. ?

I read an article about diet myths….one being you shouldn’t eat late. This doctor says it’s not the late eating that’s the problem. The problem arises when you have already eaten three meals and you make eating before bed ’snacks’ a fourth meal. (and some of our ’snacks’ are bigger than what we normally eat for breakfast or lunch, you know it’s true) And usually what we choose to snack on late at night is not a healthy choice. In todays busy world there are many who work late shifts, and they are not all obese. It all comes down to what you eat, and how much….not when.

So I write a really nice blog (I think it’s nice) and almost within hours it’s three pages back.  ?  And yet still in the very first spot…..the same one, in fact it’s still there today.  Actually the first five or so are still there……..what am I?  Chopped liver? (my gramma used to say that all the time)  That happens frequently, and then I get hardly any comments, because who goes back 3, 4 even 5 pages to read and comment?  I do, sometimes, but not always.   How does this happen?  I’m just curious, I’m sure it happens to a lot of us.  So do I copy it and re-post?  If anyone has a clue please let me in on it.  Thanks.

I know, I haven’t blogged in forever!  Sorry about that,  blogging wasn’t fun for awhile, but that’s water under the bridge.  Our newest homework assignment for the Heartbreakers’ weight loss challenge team is to list at least one thing we love about ourselves. I think one of the most important things we can do for ourselves is accept that we are  loveable.  Not because we’re ‘thin’ enough, or ‘pretty’ enough or young or witty or any of the hundreds of things we think we aren’t.  It breaks my heart to read that one of my teammates doesn’t find anything about herself to love.  How sad is that?   This blog is my response to that assignment:

I love my optimism and sense of humor. I love that even though I’m almost 69, I’m in the best health I’ve been in for decades. I love the way my husband responds to my ‘new me’. Even though he says he loves me no matter what, and is just happy to see me healthy, I know he just looks at me differently. In a nice way. I love that he is proud of me, and so am I. I guess there is a lot about me that I love, and I don’t think that’s one bit conceited.

I hope all of you dig deep and find some things that you can proudly say you love about yourselves.  If we don’t love ourselves, how can we expect to value ourselves enough to treat our bodies with respect.  And if we respect our bodies we will want them to be healthy.

That really ticked me off. (to put it nicely)  Went for my checkup last Tuesday.  Started out great.  Got weighed,  the scale was good to me.  Got my BP meds lowered again, due to weight loss.   And doctor said he was proud of my weight loss.  Well, beg your pardon, but as I did all the work, it’s me who should be proud.  He had nothing to do with it.  Then he said I needed to get a pneumonia shot.  Well, I do not mind getting shots.  As long as nothing is being poked into me in a private place… no problem.  But when I asked why I needed it…. I mean I’ve never had pnemonia.  He said, “Well, when you reach a certain age……”    That’s all I heard.  I asked him what he meant by that crack?   “Well, uh…  I um, well… you know, just uhhh”  You get the picture.  Now I don’t usually have any problem with being 68 years old.  I think I look pretty damn good, and I’m getting healthier by the day.  Remember I just wogged a 5k, for God’s sake.   But to have someone make an assumption about my health, based on my attaining a certain age is unacceptable.  Especially by a doctor who is about the age of my grandson.  GRRRRRRRRRRR!  Well I did get the shot, I mean who wants to tempt fate?   Especially at my age!  Geeze, next thing you know some young thing is going to call me “elderly” and my blood pressure will shoot back up!@!!

I have incorporated weight training into my exercise regimen. ….  15 minutes, 3 days a week.  I can already see a difference after only two weeks.  My clothes are fitting better and I am even developing a bicep!  (actually two)  lol   But I only maintained last week and think I gained a couple this week.  I know it’s to be expected so I refuse to let it bother me.  It’s worth it and I’m tired of the scales telling me what to do!  So now it’s wogging three days a week, water aerobics class for an hour, 3 days a week and the weight training 3 days a week.  Not bad.  I’ve even had a couple of people ask me if I’ve lost more weight.  Ahh, don’t you just love it when that happens?  I also invented a new recipe.  I have an over-abundance of zucchini and yellow squash… and I had this brilliant idea.  I finely shredded some zucchini and cooked it with my oatmeal.  (1/2 cup old fashioned Qaker oats, 1/2 cup zucchini and 1 cup water….a little salt and cook until the squash and oats are nice and soft.  Then I stirred in a little vanilla flavoring, sprinkled the top with Splenda, added a splash of milk (Almond Breeze, for me) and I’ll be darned if it didn’t taste like zucchini bread.  Which I love!  You can add a little cinnamon if you like….   The squash adds 0 points if you’re a WW and really makes a big bowl of creamy cereal for less than 3 points.    I had some of the raw shredded zucchini left and tossed it in my tuna salad…. that was great, too.  Well, I guess that’s all I have to say…. if I come up with anymore bright ideas for zucchini I’ll let you know. 

If you know me then you know I do water aerobics three morning a week.  I love it!  BUT…….We share the pool and locker room with the high school swim teams.  When I hear those skinny little girls in the locker room complaining about the rolls of fat on their little toes and how their earlobes are starting to droop, I just can’t help but wonder what they think when they see me in the shower! Or am I so far out of their reality that I’m invisible? Like in another dimension? lol  Sometimes, just to be evil, we tell them we used to look just like them when we were in high school.  It gives them something to think about……….

Have you ever noticed that your clothes change from day to day….. like, one day I put on an outfit and think ‘I look pretty good in this.  I love the color and the pants fit great.’ and I go out the door feeling like a million bucks.  Same outfit next time…. I weigh the same, but I look in the mirror and OH MY GOD.  I look like crap… no way can I go out looking like a fat cow! :(  I call it looking at myself with my fat goggles on.  It happens all the time.  It must have something to do with my self esteem… it changes with the weather I guess.   Some Sundays I go to church so proud of the weight I’ve lost and then the next Sunday, darned if I feel like I can’t get into that choir robe fast enough…. quick so no one sees me for the fat girl I really am.  Does this happen to anyone else???